So long story short, I'm a CP social worker of over 20 years vintage. About 4 years ago I left front line management to become an independent assessor and now I'm a safeguarding lead in a school.
The school is great, and I am really enjoying it. However, my line manager, whom I really like, has overall responsibility for safeguarding across four schools (it's a trust). He has worked his way up from a school office position to becoming the safeguarding lead for the academy trust. All good, I have zero interest in his role. I've done my stint in safeguarding management, and it's not something I want to ever dip my toe into again. However, whilst my role was vacant he was doing this position. He has said to me that he doesn't want to give up the front line safeguarding and he remains the point person for certain year groups. This is his choice, he is my line manager and to be frank I don't care as it means less work for me!
My dilemma is this, he is extremely abrupt with families we support. He bowls in, threatening referral to the local authority, and quotes legislation and policy that has no relevance to the discussions we need to have with families. The school has had a massive upsurge in complaints regarding safeguarding and its all to do with his decision making.
I'll give you an example. This is made up but, you get the gist..
A child comes in and says, Mummy was asleep, and I stepped in dog wee on the floor. The teachers immediately defer to him. He will call the local council and get advice; they will say to explore the situation and then refer in if needed. He will not do anything with this. Then, at about 4pm, he will call the parent, not ask the parent if anything is happening, and just tell them he has taken advice from Cs and the parents understandably get upset, resulting in a complaint. He doesn't listen to them at all. Just ploughs through, I have tried to offer reflective safeguarding supervision (I have additional qualifications in this) but he dismisses this, saying he has been doing the job long enough.
He has been there a long time and is very well-regarded. However, the issue is that other staff members have started to circumvent him and come to me with safeguarding concerns. I find this very uncomfortable as he is my manager. I cannot challenge him as he is very well-regarded and has been in the school for nearly 30 years. He writes all the policy and is basically a safeguarding administrator but has very raw skills in relating to and supporting children and family's.
I don't want to leave as the benefits greatly outweigh going back to front line social work. But I am getting more and more worried about his practice, and I am concerned it looks like I'm undermining him when I am trying very hard not to. what do I do